


something out of a dream

by smallblueandloud



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Final Mission Rarepair Exchange, Flirting, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Multi, daisy has a little bit of a meltdown but it's okay!, they all have dogs! and they meet at a dog park! it's really cute!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27287701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallblueandloud/pseuds/smallblueandloud
Summary: “Oh--” says Daisy, wavering, before she realizes she wrapped up everything interesting on her phone five minutes ago. “Sure,” she decides, turning around. “Hi.”He grins. He’s cute, with curly hair and a bit of a beard. “I’m Fitz,” he says, waving sort of awkwardly. “I’m an engineer. I’m here with Rose, uh--” he gestures vaguely at the rest of the park. “She’s out there somewhere.”“Nice to meet you, Fitz,” says Daisy, smiling back. “Yeah, it’s my first time here, Edward’s old owners moved and left him with me. I was their neighbor. Uh-- I’m not really sure about this whole dog park... thing...”(or, daisy meets two cute people at a dog park. written for the final mission rarepair exchange!)
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	something out of a dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Coal_burningbright](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coal_burningbright/gifts).



> this is for gray (@genderfluid-and-confuzled on tumblr / Coal_burningbright on ao3)! thanks for the chance to write some fsk :D there is never enough fsk in the world! i hope you enjoy.
> 
> thank you to al for putting together such an awesome exchange, coming up with jemma's dog's name (and the reasoning behind it), and generally just being an awesome human being.
> 
> title is from "celeste" because i love how joyous that song is and it fits these idiots VERY well. there's more i want to do with this story, about their dating and meeting the other SHIELD peeps, but god knows when that'll happen lmao. stay tuned i guess?

When Daisy stops the car, Edward is panting excitedly in the backseat.

“Alright, alright,” she says, laughing, as she pulls off her seatbelt. She turns around to smile at him, absently adjusting the sleeves of her sweater. “You’re excited for the park?”

He sticks his tongue out and looks at her, his body primed for movement. She grins. He’s a good dog, very large and very energetic, and she loves spending time with him. Even though she’s kind of worried that he’s going to bolt the second the car door opens. It’s only the second week that she’s had him, after his former owners had to move several states away, and she’s never taken him to the park before.

She’s sure it’ll be fine. It’s a dog park, not rocket science, right?

She gets out of the car and walks around to pull the passenger door open, making sure to block his path while she clips the leash to his harness. She pulls back to look him in the eye. “You’re going to be good, right?”

He smiles at her, as much as dogs can smile. He’s still panting, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and she wants him to be this happy forever.

She steps aside, keeping a firm grip on the leash, and lets him jump out of the car. He’s good about waiting while she closes and locks the door, but then he tugs her towards the gate and noses at the gap until she pulls the latch open and lets them both in.

She crouches down to eye level and stares at him. “Good boy,” she says, and rubs his head. He’s got short brown hair, some kind of mutt, and the texture is always reassuring. She unhooks the leash and steps back. “Go for it!”

She holds her breath. She’d read about typical rules for dog parks this morning while eating her cereal, but she’s still not quite sure--

He bounds off to go run in circles. She lets out a breath and goes to sit at the picnic table.

There’s five or six other dogs in the park, it looks like. A few are running around with their owners, but there’s two people sitting at the only picnic table. The woman is reading a book while the guy on the other side has his back to the table and his head tilted back, enjoying the sunlight.

Daisy has to repress a snort. It’s October. It’s 50 degrees out and there’s not much sun to speak of, but she’s not going to burst his bubble.

She takes a seat at the table, on the same side but opposite end as the woman reading the book. She pulls out her phone and starts to scroll.

She answers a handful of texts from Trip, sends him a dog picture from one of the red lights on the drive to the park, then puts down her phone and looks around.

The park’s got trees surrounding the fence, but the interior is relatively plant-free. There’s a lot of dirt and things to climb on and hide in. It looks like a dog’s paradise, if she’s being honest. She’s proud of remembering that dogs needed things like time to run around outside freely, even after the afternoon walks she’s been good about remembering. She feels kind of bad she has an apartment and not a backyard, but at least now he gets to socialize with other dogs, right?

It’s important for kids to socialize. She’s doing fine.

“Hey--” says an accented voice. Daisy jumps, then turns over her shoulder to try to figure out who’s talking to her. It’s the guy, who’s apparently decided to finish his impromptu tanning session.

“Me?” she asks.

He wrinkles his nose. “Yeah! Uh-- sorry if this is weird. I haven’t seen you around. You don’t have to talk, but I’m always really bored out here and I like meeting new people.”

“Oh--” says Daisy, wavering, before she realizes she wrapped up everything interesting on her phone five minutes ago. “Sure,” she decides, turning around. “Hi.”

He grins. He’s cute, with curly hair and a bit of a beard. “I’m Fitz,” he says, waving sort of awkwardly. “I’m an engineer. I’m here with Rose, uh--” he gestures vaguely at the rest of the park. “She’s out there somewhere.”

“Nice to meet you, Fitz,” says Daisy, smiling back. “Yeah, it’s my first time here, Edward’s old owners moved and left him with me. I was their neighbor. Uh-- I’m not really sure about this whole dog park... thing...”

She trails off as she turns around and notices that Edward has taken the opportunity to roll in the dirt. A lot. She frowns. “Do they... do that every time?”

When she turns around, Fitz is grinning at her behind his hand. “I want to say no,” he says. She laughs despite herself, blushing, as he looks her over consideringly. “You’ve really never had a dog before, have you?”

“I had a roommate with a cat!” says Daisy. “And I researched this! But no one mentioned having to be careful about dirt. Ugh, I’m gonna have to bathe him after this, aren’t I?”

Fitz starts to laugh at her again, realizes something, and grimaces. “You drove your own car, right?”

“What?” she says. She turns around to look at Ed, who’s now playing with another dog in the dirt. It hits her. “Oh my god.” Her poor backseat. Her poor, freshly-vacuumed backseat.

“I’d offer you a towel,” he says, “but I only bring the one.”

“Yeah,” she says, sighing. “God. I look kind of like an idiot here, don’t I?”

“You’re taking care of your dog!” says Fitz with a gesture. It’s such a frantic backpedal she’s surprised he doesn’t fall off the metaphorical bike. “Frankly, I find that admirable. And kind. And- other adjectives.”

She smiles at him. “Thanks. I still have to dig through my trunk in the hopes of a forgotten towel, though.”

“Excuse me?” It’s the woman on the other side of the picnic table. She’s setting down her book, putting the bookmark in with ease of long practice. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help hearing you forgot a towel for your dog. I have an extra in my trunk, if you--”

“Oh my god, that would be awesome, _thank_ you,” says Daisy. “I’m Daisy, by the way.”

“Jemma Simmons,” says the woman, holding out her hand to shake. Daisy shakes it, feeling kind of awkward. The woman smiles at her. “It’s your first time here, isn’t it?”

“That obvious?” asks Daisy.

Jemma shakes her head. “No, no, I didn’t-- I just haven’t seen you before.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “Yeah, it’s my second week with Edward.”

“You’ll get into the rhythm of it,” says Jemma. “I’ve had Rubisco for two years, and at this point it’s clockwork.”

“I still forget the towel sometimes,” admits Fitz.

“Well, yes, and packing a spare,” says Jemma, making a gesture.

Daisy watches with fascination. “Do you two know each other?”

“Not really,” says Jemma.

Fitz shakes his head.

“I like to use this time for reading, and he very kindly leaves me to it,” explains Jemma.

He nods. “Basically.”

“Well, I’m glad there was someone I could talk to,” says Daisy. “Two someones, I guess?”

“Nice to meet you too,” says Jemma, smiling. She kind of awkwardly turns back so she’s facing forward and pulls her book out again.

Daisy turns back to Fitz. “So,” she says. “How long have you had your... Rose?”

“Three or four years,” he says, wrinkling his nose. “I’m not great at keeping track of dates and stuff. But really, it’s easy to take care of them. They live with you and they’re rather good at communicating.”

Jemma snorts, still reading. “Not if yours is dumb as bricks.”

“Yeah?” asks Daisy, grinning. _I like to use this time for reading._ Yeah right. It’s not like she’s complaining, though.

“I love her, I honestly do, she’s just--” Jemma hesitates, bookmarking her page again. “She thinks the fridge is a door that leads into another room.”

Fitz bursts out laughing. Daisy snorts. “Seriously? Oh my god.”

“Yes, well,” says Jemma. “That’s actually where her name comes from. Rubisco is a plant enzyme that is _startlingly_ inefficient for what it does.”

“Oh, you thought of a smart reason,” says Daisy. “Edward’s named after the Fullmetal Alchemist character. Glad _your_ dog has a meaningful name at least.”

Fitz wrinkles his nose. “Chemistry, though?”

Jemma crosses her arms. “And what’s wrong with chemistry?”

“It’s not engineering, duh,” says Daisy, accepting a fistbump from Fitz. “Although, to be fair, most of engineering is pretty annoying too.”

“Oh yeah?” says Fitz, frowning.

“Too fiddly.” Daisy shrugs. “Software is the only valid form of STEM.”

As Fitz sputters in outrage, Daisy turns to Jemma. “So you like chemistry?”

“ _Like_ it? I would say that’s an understatement, given that I have a handful of degrees related to biochemistry.” She isn’t as modest about it as others would be, it somehow isn’t distasteful. Instead, Daisy finds herself intrigued.

“Really?”

Jemma nods. “I do research at one of the local labs.”

“That’s so cool,” says Daisy, honestly. She never went to college - just got a bunch of certifications for everything she needed to get freelance coding gigs. She honestly has no idea how anyone could succeed at it, much less a _second_ time.

“I have multiple degrees as well,” says Fitz. When they turn to him, he flushes.

Daisy smiles at him anyway. “You both are so cool.”

“What about you, Daisy?” asks Jemma.

Daisy winces, then finds herself laughing awkwardly. “Nah. College never really was my thing.”

She doesn’t want to talk about her early twenties and that Miles-related shitshow, much less her high school years or her childhood. And all of it would eventually cycle back to Ward, which she _really_ would rather avoid.

“Anyway,” she says brightly, “I really should be headed off. Jemma, is the towel offer still open?”

“Oh-- yes, yes of course,” says Jemma. She exchanges a glance with Fitz, but luckily, neither of them ask what’s wrong. Daisy doesn’t know how to describe it, but suddenly her mood’s shifted, and she’s not making friends with two pretty people at the dog park on a perfect day anymore. Instead, all she wants to do is be at home, under a blanket, eating cookies by the handful.

She stands up and calls for Edward. Luckily, he doesn’t seem upset about having to leave, bounding over to her and waiting patiently as she struggles to pull her leg out of the picnic table.

He’s even good about letting her rehook the leash. He stays close to her as they follow Jemma out of the park and to a nearby Prius. Even in her terrible mood, Daisy finds it in herself to grin. “Of _course_ you’d own a Prius.”

Jemma pulls open the trunk and smiles at her, hesitantly. “Yes? Based on what?”

“On your...” Daisy hunts for the right words and eventually quits, gesturing at the entirety of her. “Everything.”

Jemma chuckles. “I’ll take it.” She reaches into the car and pulls out a towel, handing it to Daisy. Their hands brush. “I’m really glad to have met you,” she says.

Daisy musters a smile. “Me too.”

For a moment, she considers trying to find some kind of excuse about having to meet someone for something, but her brain has really given up the ghost. “Thank you for this,” she says instead.

“Anytime, Daisy,” says Jemma. “See you sometime?”

“Yeah,” says Daisy. She shakes Edward’s leash. “Gotta bring this little guy back, don’t I?”

She backs away and waves with the towel. “Nice meeting you!” Then she turns tail and flees to her car.

* * *

The next time Daisy goes to the dog park, Fitz is there. Jemma is not.

“Hey,” she says, sliding onto the bench on the other side of the table from him. She ignores the butterflies in her stomach. It’s been a few days since her meltdown and hasty retreat, and she doesn’t _regret_ it exactly, but she still feels awkward. Hopefully she didn’t ruin this prospective friendship with her shitty history.

Fitz smiles at her. “Hi, computer scientist.”

The anxiety clears instantly. “I brought a towel this time,” she says. “My own towel. Also Jemma’s towel, because I need to return it. Not that I’m not happy to see you - I am - but do you know if she’s going to be here today?”

Fitz shrugs. “We don’t know each other very well. I think we have a mutual friend or two, if you really need to know...”

“I’m okay,” says Daisy, smiling at him. “I’ll run into her eventually. How about you? How was your week?”

He sighs, glancing out over the park. “Fine, I suppose. We’re dealing with some setbacks in the wiring of our newest product, which is putting everything on hold and is bloody _frustrating,_ but we’ll get past it eventually.”

“This is why I never want to work in hardware,” says Daisy. “It’s so easy to mess up.”

“How can you take anything seriously without touching it with your hands?” counters Fitz. “How does something feel real unless you can mess around with it with your own fingers?”

She starts to argue the point, then thinks better of it. “That’s fair. I’m just a pretty clumsy person, so I don’t trust my hands very much.”

“I’m clumsy too,” says Fitz. “Not with the delicate work. But walking around a room? I bump into everything.”

Daisy grins at him. “Me too! Sore spots on my hips and arms, always.”

“It must be better to be clumsy at everything, though.” Fitz tilts his head up thoughtfully. “At least your body’s decided on something.”

“Yeah, but I can’t do most of engineering,” says Daisy, giggling.

Fitz inclines his head. “True.”

There’s barking behind Daisy. She starts to turn around, but Fitz doesn’t look concerned, so she looks back to him. “Does this happen every time someone comes through the gate?”

He smiles. “Generally. The dogs like to see each other, and if they’re excited, we have to _know_ about it.”

“Of course,” says Daisy, grinning. There’s something _easy_ about talking with Fitz that she’s noticed both times they’ve spoken. She drove here feeling nervous and kind of terrible, but five minutes of conversation has her at ease. She considers him for a moment and decides to take the leap.

“Can I have your phone number?”

He blinks at her, clearly surprised, but then a smile breaks out on his face. “Yeah, of course.”

“Awesome,” says Daisy, pulling out her phone, unlocking it, and pulling open the contacts app. “For any dog-related questions I may have. Or engineering arguments.”

“I also specialize in scifi,” says Fitz, accepting the phone.

“I’ll be sure to take you up on that,” she says, smiling.

In the sudden silence of Fitz typing in his contact information, Daisy realizes the barking has gotten much closer and turns just in time to get an armful of a large white dog.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so-- Rubisco, get _down._ Daisy, I’m so sorry, I want to say she’s generally better than this but she always comes over here to investigate the people.”

“It’s okay,” says Daisy, laughing a little as she pets Rubisco’s head. “Nice to meet you, kiddo! Boy, you’re sure excited.”

“She’s always excited,” says Jemma fondly, wrapping her hands around Rubisco’s torso and pulling her bodily off Daisy. “Go on and play, darling. That’s the whole reason why we’re here. If you wanted to see people, we could’ve just gone to see Bobbi and Hunter.”

Rubisco clearly doesn’t understand any of this.

Jemma sighs, takes a deep breath, and points in the direction of the park proper, whistling loudly. Rubisco obediently turns away from Daisy and runs towards the other dogs.

“Well trained,” observes Fitz. He taps Daisy’s shoulder and hands her back her phone.

“Yes, well, I’ve done my best,” says Jemma, sitting down on the bench next to Daisy. She’s only a few inches away. Daisy has to resist the urge not to bump shoulders with her.

“How _do_ you train a dog?” asks Daisy, ignoring the sudden reappearance of her stomach-butterflies. “I’ve gotten Ed to come when I call, but that’s basically it.”

“Positive reinforcement,” says Jemma. “Lots of attention and praise when they do the right thing. Treats, if you have them. Rubisco likes it when I scratch her chin.”

“Like a cat?” asks Daisy, delighted to recognize animal behavior. She notices, vaguely, that her voice has gotten louder, as if to drown out her nervousness. “The cat of my former roommate used to _love_ chin scratches.”

“Rubisco is nowhere _near_ aware enough of the world around her to be a cat,” says Jemma, smiling at her. Then she turns to look at Fitz. “Hello!”

Fitz smiles at her, scratching the back of his neck. “Hello, Simmons. Does Hunter sneak treats to your dog as well?”

Jemma rolls her eyes. “I can’t get him to _stop._ ”

“Hunter?” asks Daisy.

“Mutual friend,” says Jemma. “He loves dogs, but he and his partner Bobbi have had the same cat for ten years and he - the cat, Jay - does _not_ love them.”

“So he takes it upon himself to spoil ours instead,” says Fitz. “Extensively.”

“My friend Trip keeps bringing Ed new toys, so I feel that,” says Daisy. “Speaking of dog stuff, Jem, I have your towel in my car.”

“Alright,” says Jemma, waiting until Daisy stands up to follow her. “I trust Fitz can keep an eye on the children.”

“Cross my heart,” says Fitz solemnly. He tries and fails to wink smoothly at Daisy.

She and Jemma walk to the parking lot, uncomfortably mirroring their walk last week after Daisy’s tiny meltdown. To avoid thinking about the similarities, Daisy talks instead. “Thank you so much for lending me the towel, it was so helpful.”

“You’re welcome,” says Jemma. “This situation is precisely why I carry it.”

“Really?” asks Daisy, pulling open the gate and turning to grin at her. “This exact situation?”

“Always nice to be a knight in shining armor to a pretty damsel,” says Jemma. Her cheeks are red.

Daisy knows intimately how nerve-wracking it can be to hit on a random girl. “As long as I get to be the knight sometimes. Knights are hot, but so are those dresses.”

She’s rewarded with a relieved smile from Jemma. “I went a bit out on a limb there.”

“Glad you did,” says Daisy. “I have an annoying habit of not asking pretty girls out when I meet them.”

They’ve reached Daisy’s car. Jemma leans against the door and turns to her, tilting her head. “Oh? And what about Fitz?”

“What about him?” asks Daisy. _Come on, Jemma, we barely know each other. Don’t be weird and jealous, don’t be weird and jealous,_ please _let her not be weird and jealous--_

“Well, he’s cute--” says Jemma, glancing to the side. “And I’ve spoken to him about science a few times and loved every second.”

“I mean, we could... all go out?” asks Daisy, praying she’s reading this right. “There’s this really good sandwich shop down the street from where I live.”

“That sounds amazing,” says Jemma. “I would love that. I wasn’t sure how to-- there’s no need to leave him out when he’s part of this, right?”

“Yeah, of course not,” says Daisy, frowning, before she realizes it looks like she’s disagreeing. She nods, grinning. “Absolutely.”

“Excellent,” says Jemma, and smiles at her. “It’s a date, then.”

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i have never lived with a dog in my life.
> 
> i am [on tumblr](https://smallblueandloud.tumblr.com), still obsessed with the Good Ship Fitzskimmons. come say hi if you love them too! i'm not much of a real person these days but i'm always up for talking about these three.


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